Bonus plus-minus: Navy-Colgate

That’s right, nine – the number of layups Navy missed in a 64-59 overtime loss to Colgate in the Patriot League quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Nine missed layups is hard to do, especially when only one of them was blocked.

On this particular night, it was a costly bit of failure in the fundamentals.

Colgate warrants plenty of credit for overcoming its point-a-minute pace for much of the first half, dispensing with its raggedy play, and coming up with a victory that can leave the Raiders feeling better about themselves after enduring a slide late in the regular season.

At halftime last night, I wrote Colgate’s mind was willing but its body wasn’t able. Turns out the same statement was even more true of Navy.

One penultimate set of numbers before getting to the plus-minus:

Layups: 8/17Dunks: 1/12-point jumpers: 6/223-pointers: 4/19

Sometimes games are complex; other times, they’re easy to figure out. Last night was really easy. Navy couldn’t shoot, and as a result they’re at home.

Onto the plus-minus, which has an interesting quirk in that Greg Brown and Jeremy Wilson both technically played zero seconds (they entered with 0.8 seconds left, Wilson fouled before the inbound play, and both went back to the bench after the free throws):